170 SADDLE AND CAMP 



about legal prohibitions when he may substi- 

 tute the flesh of wild animals and birds for mut- 

 ton. 



Thus the sheep, sweeping clean all before 

 them and leaving the ranges over which they 

 pass unproductive, for several succeeding sea- 

 sons, of pasturage for either wild or domestic 

 animals, together with the destructive shep- 

 herds, are the worst enemies at present of Utah's 

 wild game, particularly of antelope, sage hens, 

 and grouse. We must endure sheep, for we 

 must have mutton and wool, but it would seem 

 reasonable to exclude them from some of those 

 ranges where antelope are striving for exist- 

 ence and confine the herdsmen and their flocks 

 to other ranges where wild life has already be- 

 come extinct, for such ranges are numerous and 

 available and the restriction would entail no 

 great hardship. 



While the antelope ranges of southern Utah 

 have not yet been invaded and denuded by such 

 great numbers of sheep as have swept the game 

 fields of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, this 

 fate is doubtless in store for them at no distant 

 day, and when the sheep and the shepherds 

 have wrought their destruction, antelope will 

 vanish. In Iron County, which has already 

 become an extensive sheep region, settlers tell 



